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How Parkinson’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia Spread in Brain A team at Scripps Research reveals details into how Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia spread in the brain. In neurons, the LC3 protein (green) and LAMP1 protein (red) fuse together into autolysomes (yellow) where autophagy, a cellular mechanism for clearing misfolded proteins, occurs. The prominence of green shows that autophagy has been blocked at the fusion step, allowing misfolded proteins like alpha-synucelin to instead spread throughout the brain. Credit: Scripps Research ***************************************************************************** Study shows how blocking cellular housekeeping system leads to buildup and spread of abnormal protein aggregates in...

Sunday on FNC’s “Fox News Live,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) emphasized the importance of doing everything possible to “allow the Ukrainians freedom and democracy.” Ernst called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression “absolutely unacceptable.” She added that the United States needs to do more to provide lethal aid to the Ukrainians,” including cutting off Russia’s energy sources. “[T]his is heartbreaking, Bret,” Ernst said in response to Putin ordering his country’s nuclear forces to be on high alert. “And as I’ve asked point to many viewers before, I spent some time in Ukraine while it was part of the Soviet Union in...

The idea of zoonotic diseases – that is, diseases that jump from animals to humans – is one we’ve all had to become familiar with over the past couple of years. After all, the leading theory on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that it was a bat disease before it infected humans. Before that there was swine flu, which came from – you guessed it – swine, and bird flu, which came from a similarly eponymous source. So naturally, it’s in our interest to try to figure out where the next zoonotic disease might come from. A new...

Russian President Vladimir Putin banned residents from sending money to bank accounts abroad and blocked payments on external debt, aggressive controls on capital flow made in response to punishing Western sanctions. The Kremlin-issued decree said that foreign-exchange payments under loan agreements to non-residents of Russia were prohibited from March 1. It said that payments to banks and other financial-market organizations outside of Russia and money transfers through foreign payment service providers would be barred. The U.S., European Union and other Western allies put forward plans to cut major Russian banks off the Swift financial network and to take action against...

Switzerland is ditching its deep-rooted tradition of neutrality and adopting the European Union’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The move, which was announced by Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, is significant since Swiss banks include Russian oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin among their clients. Switzerland plans to immediately freeze the assets of Putin; his prime minister, Mikhail V. Mishustin; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and 367 other individuals who were personally sanctioned by the EU last week. “Switzerland reaffirms its solidarity with Ukraine and its people; it will be delivering relief supplies for people who have fled to...

For the past hundred years, the public has been warned of an existential threat that the Arctic ice would soon be gone and coastal cities would be devastated. This is from 1922 in the Washington Post by the Associated Press. The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer The only time the media deviated from saying that the ice was melting fast was in the 1970s, when they said we were under an existential threat that there was a coming ice age. Somehow, all the things we are constantly told cause warming, including coal, oil, humans, cars, CO2,...

Many thought once the invasion began, the military of Ukraine would be swept away by the might of the Russian force. Kyiv would fall and Ukraine would quickly submit to the will of Moscow, but that hasn't happened. snip Retired Lieutenant Colonel Glen Grant, now with Baltic Security Foundation, said: "In 2014, they (the Ukraine military) really were terrible. "Most of the structures that they had simply did not have sufficient people in the structure to actually do fighting and logistics. "There has been a development since then and people have understood things and there's been a better organisation of...

A Ukrainian man was arrested for partially sinking his Russian tycoon boss’ $7.7 million luxury super yacht in Spain in protest over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Taras Ostapchuk, 55, was taken into custody on Saturday in Mallorca after he allegedly opened several valves to intentionally flood the 156-foot-long vessel, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported. The yacht — named Lady Anastasia — is owned by businessman, Alexander Mijeev, who is the CEO of Russian military weapons company, Rosoboronexport. When officers arrived to arrest Ostapchuk, the crew member allegedly said: “My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel should be more cautious about its attitude to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and instead put its focus on the Iran nuclear deal, which was more of an “existential security threat.” “In days like these, it’s advisable to take positions with the utmost caution,” Netanyahu said at the opening of Monday’s Likud faction meeting according to a translation of his remarks by The Times of Israel. “Unfortunately, in the last few days we’ve heard too many unnecessary expressions and too many false predictions.”

Biden Now we hear that midterm Biden has played the crisis wonderfully. The surreal progressive take on this crisis is that Winston Biden has corn-popped the “killer” Putin, metaphorically taken “the bully” behind the proverbial gym and given him a whomping, slammed his head on the global lunch counter, and in Biden’s deterrent fashion, called him a chump, one of the dregs, a junkie, fat, and a lying dog-faced pony soldier—and capped it all off with “You ain’t white!” Joe threatened the toughest sanctions in history that on Wednesday would deter an invasion and by Saturday were never meant to...

Christmas is long past. World-War-I stories were told this Christmas about an informal, Allied-Axis cease-fire, spontaneously breaking out among the line soldiers, though condemned by the Generals, during which both sides sang Christmas carols, came out into No-Man's Land to share food, cigarettes and even play soccer games. But, now, no one last Christmas dreamt that today we would be thinking about Russia & the Ukraine. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a very popular 19th century poet, had a very appropriate poem for this time, about the human cost of war, "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day", but it was centered...

Six American special ops veterans are on the Polish border, ready to enter Ukraine and join the resistance against Putin's army after a call for help from President Zelensky. The men are joined by three British veterans and a German, all of whom are NATO-trained and ready to assist the Ukrainian territorial defense teams. They are believed to be among the first to join the newly former International Legion of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine that Zelensky announced on Sunday after a weekend of staving off the enemy. BuzzFeed News cites an unnamed US Army veteran recruiter who said there...

Shouldn't MIT be the country's leading defender of science? Today, MIT isn't asking any tough questions about the COVID vaccines and refuses to let people with dissenting views talk on campus. Dear President Reif,Nearly 24 years ago, I made a $2.5 million gift to MIT to aid in the construction of the Stata Center and in return, MIT named the Kirsch Auditorium in my honor.Since that gift, I have never once requested to speak in the auditorium named after me.Recently, however, I made such a request to speak about vaccine safety.I was denied.

U.S.—Women all over America have suddenly abandoned their feminist ideologies and are now advocating for traditional gender roles now that World War III has begun. They've quit jobs and, if single, have begun searching for a man to marry so they can have as many kids as possible as quickly as possible. "I don't know what we were thinking!" said Millie Walruscatcher of Los Angeles, CA. "I used to think being strong and independent was important but ever since I realized I might have to go and die in a war on foreign soil it's been a lot less appealing."...

Suspected cluster munitions have struck several buildings in Kharkiv after a series of explosions were captured on camera in Ukraine's second-largest city. Sky News has pinpointed the videos to northeastern Kharkiv and a military expert said the shelling appears to be the classic pattern for a cluster munition. Cluster munitions are a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions - with the explosive bomblets designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. snip "Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded," Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton...

Roughly two-thirds of the country owns a home in the United States: For those in this group who have owned their home for the past year or more, they’re sitting on some pretty nice gains. When you combine rising home prices with ultra-low mortgage rates1, you could argue homeowners have never had it better. A fixed rate mortgage with housing prices rising 20% over the past year has been the best inflation hedge you could ask for in the current environment. You could make the case the current housing environment has benefitted the bottom 50% of households more than even...

A Russian TV host dubbed “Putin’s chief propagandist” has threatened the nuclear destruction of America and NATO countries, asking, “Why do we need the world, if Russia isn’t there?” Dmitry Kiselyov made the comments on national television just hours after President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. “Our submarines can shoot more than 500 nuclear warheads,” said Kiselyov, adding, “This would guarantee destruction of the USA, and all other NATO countries.” The TV host suggested that there was no point to life continuing on earth if Russia ceased to exist, asserting, “In accordance with the principle,...

Blum made headlines last March when The New York Times reported that he was eyeing an ambassadorship. The wealthy financier was reportedly interested in a position in a European capital. Blum served as the chairman of Blum Capital Partners, an equity investment management firm. Feinstein’s office said Blum’s “true passion was outside the office,” noting his involvement with the people of the Himalayas, having founded the American Himalayan Foundation. [snip]

Blame START for the Ukraine Invasion – “Putin Hails Extension of New Start Treaty” proclaims a Moscow headline weeks after Joe Biden was sworn in as president. A sceptic of Putin should wonder, why does he like extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty? He benefits from the reduction of American long-range nuclear missiles because this makes it more difficult for the United States to react to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. If Russia seeks territorial expansion against its neighbors (and she does), and the United States does not seek to swallow up her neighbors (and she does not), then limiting...

Apple Pay and Google Pay no longer work on Moscow's metro system, leading to long queues as people fumble about for cash (funny!)